Expansion of pipeline to boost oil supply across the country

China Petroleum Pipeline Bureau has been awarded tender to build 122km long oil pipeline running from Sinendet, Eldoret town to Kisumu. This project is part of a growth plan to enhance supply of petroleum products to Western Kenya through the Western Kenya Pipeline Extension (WKPE) which runs from Nairobi to Nakuru, Eldoret and Kisumu.

The line III consists of a 10-inch pipeline which will be operated concurrently with the existing parallel one to push huge volumes of product to the region once it is completed in June 2016. The line is expected to ease movement of petroleum between the two towns.The contractor is also expected to lay a fibre optic cable along the entire pipeline length.The new pipeline construction has been necessitated by regular product shortage in Kisumu due to limitations of the existing 6-inch diameter pipeline laid in 1992. Oil pipeline construction in Kenya is on the rise as the country tames to increase its strategy in creating sustainable petroleum products across Kenya and its neighboring countries.

Moreover, Kenya Pipeline Corporation (KPC) plans to increase its volumes of product from the current 730,000 litres per hour to 1 million litres hence doing away with stock outs. It also wishes to renovate the Nairobi-Eldoret pipeline and later extend the pipeline from Eldoret- Kampala-Kigali.

Feasibility studies have confirmed the viability of extending the oil pipeline from Eldoret to Kampala. In 1999, a feasibility study found the project technically feasible, financially and economically viable. In July of the same year, a complementary study was undertaken to update the original study. Its findings were submitted in November 2001, recommending the construction of an eight-diameter, 320-km long pipeline with an annual capacity of 1 million m3. The capital cost for the entire project is estimated at KES115.8m ($110m). It will be a project financed by Kenya and Uganda, the KPC and a private entity under the Public-Private Partnership (PPP) method.

Further, plans are underway to construct a new Jet A-1 Depot to service expansion of the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) with the Greenfield terminal expected to push up demand for jet fuel. The JKIA Greenfield depot will increase the current storage capacity of 54 million litres to 126 million litres of jet fuel. KPC has been increasing its volumes of product from 800 million litres per year to over 5.6 billion litres in 2013/14 since its inception in 1978.

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